ALS News

At the 11th hour, the CNS is funded

13 Jun 2013

With just over two weeks to go before the CNS phone line preventing Aboriginal deaths in police custody was due to cease operating, the Attorney-General of Australia Mark Dreyfus today agreed to funding for a two-year period.

We want to thank all of YOU who fought hard with us to get the CNS funded.

Two weeks ago we sent hard copies of a petition to Save the CNS to the Attorney-General of Australia. Your signatures on that petition, and your heart-felt comments about why the CNS is essential, obviously made a huge difference.

And today we finally have a result. The Attorney-General of Australia is allocating $100,000 immediately to the CNS, and has agreed to us using $400,000 in 2013-14 and $500,000 in 2014-15 from their 2013 Federal Budget night allocation to the ALS.

This means the CNS has secured funding for a further two years.

We will continue to seek ongoing funding for this essential life-saving service in 2015 – obviously our fight is not really over - but we're glad for the breathing room to do so.

Can you help us fight that fight? We'll keep you posted on this and other campaigns re run through the ALS Facebook page, and our Twitter account.

For the last six weeks we’ve run an aggressive campaign to Save the CNS and bring Government attention to this essential service, and because of your significant support and your sharing of our campaign, we have won.

You, a very large cross-section of the Australian community have successfully called on the government to fund the CNS because there is enough evidence showing the CNS prevents Aboriginal deaths in police custody.

We have been overwhelmed by your support, and hope you can join us into the future to ensure the CNS remains for as long as there are vulnerable Aboriginal people in police custody.

Thank you.

Phil Naden
CEO
Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT)

We wish to acknowledge the many significant people and organisations who publicly and privately expressed their support for our campaign to continue funding for the CNS including the NSW Police, NSW Coroner, NSW Law Society, Australian Red Cross, NSW Council of Civil Liberties, Coalition of Peak Aboriginal Organisations (CAPO) including NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC), Link Up NSW, NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, NSW Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council, and NSW Aboriginal Child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat, the previous Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma, the NSW Greens, and the NSW Ombudsman wrote to the NSW Government late last year in support of the CNS.